Skywarn Net Activated for January 2017 Severe weather

On the evening of January 22,2017, at the request of National Weather Service- Melbourne Florida, we activated a Martin County Florida Skywarn Spotter Net on the 145.150 repeater. The net started at 8:00PM and lasted through the night until 1:30AM on the 23rd with Net Controllers* changing guard at the top of the hour. While Martin County was spared any major damage, no reports of hail, rain, or wind damage (that met the Spotters guidelines) were reported.

Successfully, we monitored the path of the potentially severe storm in Martin County which impacted the entire state of Florida. The Skywarn Net was prepared to take any reports which could have been relayed to NWS-Melbourne via RF, Echolink,landline, cell phone, Twitter, and Facebook. The Statewide Amateur Radio (SAR) Net was also monitored on UHF 444.150 as well as the Treasure Coast Weather Net (TCWN) on the 146.775 repeater.

Comments

Immediately after we formally closed the net for Martin County, many of us stayed on frequency as the tornado hit the Northern Palm Beach areas. Thanks for your dedication towards Amateur Radio and the NWS Skywarn Spotter program.If your interested in this Skywarn Spotter program please SIGN IN to the Skywarn related section on this MCARA website to receive automated notices of Net Activation's such as this one that just occurred. Currently only 31 MCARA members are signed up.73Ray J